Keep your vibrations high to beat anxiety and stress: Experts

Stress and anxiety levels are at an all-time high as the new Covid-19 wave has taken people by shock and surprise. The sudden spike in cases amongst the near and dear, medical conditions and mortalities are causing huge stress to everyone at some level.

Psychologists, mental health experts, medicos and yoga gurus are flooded with distress calls from people seeking help to overcome their acute anxiety.

“The intensity of stress and anxiety amongst people are at highest level. In last lockdown people had stress but right now the fear and grief are both at an all-time high. Since everything happened so very swiftly that the people were unable to cope with,” said Dr Manju Agarwal, professor of psychology and dean student welfare of Amity University.

With her husband recovering from Covid-19, after hospitalisation, Dr Agarwal herself has faced it. “It was a tough phase, so along with giving the best possible treatment, I continued meditating, kept my energies high and regularly sent him good vibes. It’s very important to keep your vibrations high with right meditation and transfer it to others facing anxiety and battling Covid,” she said.

Dr Agarwal shares importance of giving space to those in grief, talk to them on phone and let them pour their emotions out in the time when we can’t hold their hand and hug them physically. She warns people to stay away from negative news, WhatsApp groups and go for a digital detox.

According to homoeopathic practitioner and Vipassana follower Dr SK Jain it’s time to keep optimistic and spread positivity.

“Though there are some medicines that we prescribe in homoeopathy, but again it’s all about seeing good things that are happening around us. I know a lot of people are falling ill but we need to see that nearly 98.5% are recovering — most of them in home isolation while others after hospitalisation. We attract what we think so it’s important to meditate and watch light entertainment content, so we remain de-stressed and make others happy too,” he said.

To help people tackle the stress during Covid-19, Art of Living has introduced three new free courses — for developing immunity against the infection, for people currently under isolation and for rejuvenation of patients recovered from the infection.

Tanuj Narain, a senior teacher at Lucknow, explains, “To reduce anxiety the Vagus Nerve needs to be activated that nullifies the fight or flight response triggered during stress. Bhramari Pranayam, Nadi Shodhan Pranayam and the Straw Breath Pranayam are helpful in reducing the effects of anxiety. Every emotion corresponds to a specific breathing pattern within us. In Pranayam we apply the reverse engineering — by altering the breathing pattern our emotions can also change.

All experts focused on feeling good, interacting with family members, friends and acquaintances to make them feel de-stressed and happy.